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Veterans News

Special To Highlands Today

Published: July 11, 2008

Wounded Warrior Program Assists Soldiers

The U.S. Army established the U.S. Army Wounded Warrior Program in 2005 to provide severely wounded soldiers and their families advocacy and follow-up with personal support so they can return to duty or to civilian life.

Recovery is not limited to physical needs, but includes emotional, spiritual, financial and occupational needs.

Call 1-800-833-6622.

VA To Open Centers In Polk, Other Communities

By fall 2009, The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will develop facilities for combat veterans to receive readjustment counseling and other assistance in 39 more communities across the country.

Community-based veteran centers are considered to be one of the key components of the VA's mental health program, according to Dr. James B. Peake, Secretary of Veterans Affairs.

The 232 VA mental health centers offer counseling on employment, family issues and education to combat veterans and their family members. Bereavement counseling is offered to families of service members killed in active duty, Veterans who were sexually harassed or abused while on active duty are also given counseling.

Services are free to veterans who have experienced combat during any war era. The centers are staffed by teams of counselors, outreach workers and other specialists, many of whom are combat veterans.

The centers have hired 100 combat veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan as outreach specialists. These centers are located near military processing stations, to brief servicemen and women leaving the military about VA benefits available.

VA's 2009 budget proposal seeks $20 million more than this year's budget for the centers, to include operating and leasing space. Eighteen of the counties that will have new centers already have one or more centers; the other 21 do not. Florida counties getting new centers are Polk, Broward, Palm Beach, Pasco, Pinellas and Volusia.

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